General Notes

Rudolf (1858-89), archduke and crown prince of Austria, only son of Emperor
Francis Joseph of Austria. He was a patron of literature and the arts and
traveled extensively. He wrote about his travels in Travels in the East (1884;
translated 1884). In 1881 he married Princess Stephanie of Belgium. His
romantic attachment with a young Austrian noblewoman, Baroness Marie Vetsera,
ended in the violent death of both. Their bodies were found in a hunting lodge
at Mayerling, near Vienna. Although the Austrian government officially
announced that the lovers had committed suicide, unsubstantiated rumors of
foul play have persisted to the present day, chiefly because of the archduke's
sympathy with the cause of Hungarian nationalism.